Re: Similarities: Contemporary US and WWII Germany

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003, Tim Jones wrote:

> Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 14:58:58 -0600
> From: Tim Jones <deforest@austin.rr.com>
> To: Seyed Javad <seyedjavad@hotmail.com>, KenRichard2002@aol.com,
>      tjuli2001@yahoo.de
> Cc: wsn@csf.colorado.edu
> Subject: Re: Similarities: Contemporary US and WWII Germany
> 
> My recollection is that when Gandhi was asked about "Western 
> Civilization," he replied:
> "It's a good idea, they should try it."
> 
> Tim

Gunder Frank chimes in with a short excerpt from an artricle about
Ghandi's philosophy and truth for the Mumbai/Bombay magazine POLITICAL AND
ECONOMIC WEEKLY

 Moreover, this entirely ideological category lends
itself to everything from 'the mission civizilatrice'' of the ''white
man's burden'' by nineteenth century colonialism, passing through Joseph
Goebbles' claim that Hitler's invasion of Russia was  ''to save Western
civilization'' to that old cold warrior Samuel Huntington replacing the
''evil empire'' that is no more by  a new ''Clash of Civilizations,"  to
the present incessantly reiterated claim by British Prime Minister Blair
and US President Bush that they are ''saving civilization." Well they have
themselves already destroyed in a day it most precious fruits, which were
the international law and  UN  institutions built up over the centuries in
the attempt to stop  man killing man - and women and children -  on
massive scales. Fifty  or more million - of which 40 million in the Soviet
Union -  were killed in World War II;  countless tens of millions have
died in Northern created and sponsored wars around the Third World South,
not to mention the one million Iraqis killed by US/UN sanctions during the
1990s. Like the villages in Vietnam,  the United States is engaged in
destroying civilization to ''save'' it, trampling on human rights to
''defend'' them.  I fear that Gandhi was mistaken in at least one serious
matter, and that is when he said that "Western civilization ''would be a
good idea.''  On the evidence to the contrary, it seems to be a very BAD
idea.

gunder frank


> 
> At 4:27 PM +0000 10/29/03, Seyed Javad wrote:
> >Greetings,
> >
> >I agree with this and have one thing to add. All empires do use 
> >coercive forces to subjugate any independent moves within or without 
> >the walls of empire; be it mental or physical (although both always 
> >go hand in hand!). But the point is not the use of force or the 
> >declaration of war. On the contrary, when any empire feels the need 
> >to declare it and to resort to naked force that actually says 
> >something important about the state of the empire in terms of its 
> >internal strength or weakness. As a matter of fact this is a great 
> >time for those who have for long aspired for emancipation becasue 
> >the empire is falling and the prospect of the new ones are not clear 
> >enough. There has never been any 'democratic empire' and the very 
> >notion democracy, at best, is a good idea as Gandhi once asked about 
> >'Western Civilization' said: it is a good idea! That something is a 
> >good idea does not necessarily mean that it is.
> >
> >Kind Regards
> >
> >
> >
> >Start downloading music from 62p per track with the 
> ><http://g.msn.com/8HMAENUK/2734??PS=>MSN Music Club.
> 
> 




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               ANDRE    GUNDER      FRANK

Senior Fellow                                      Residence
World History Center                    One Longfellow Place
Northeastern University                            Apt. 3411
270 Holmes Hall                         Boston, MA 02114 USA
Boston, MA 02115 USA                    Tel:    617-948 2315
Tel: 617 - 373 4060                     Fax:    617-948 2316
Web-page:csf.colorado.edu/agfrank/     e-mail:franka@fiu.edu
Web-page UPDATES are at   http://rrojasdatabank.info/agfrank 
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